June 6

Claude Jean Allouez was born in Saint-Didier-en-Velay, France on the 6th in 1622. He would become a Jesuit missionary. From 1667 to 1669 his work took him to what is now Wisconsin where he ministered to the Potawatomi (Keepers of the fire) and Mesquakie (The people of the Red Earth) Indians. On the death of Father Jacques Marquette (pictured below) in 1675, Allouez was ordered by his superiors to continue Marquette’s work with the Indians. He did so until his own death on August 28, 1689.